Heat Mats.

[Banjo]

Hmm thought someone would of answered this by now to make a heat board you just cut sheet of melamine or whatever and get a router and route grooves wide enough and deep enough for you to lay the heat cord ino these groves.
Is how most people heat large racks the heat cord is routed into the shelf.
Im sure you could find a picture somewhere around this site or someone would have one.
There easy to make i just make 3 or so long grooves along one edge of the board and lay about 3 or so strips of cord in that side about 5cm apart then put a bit of cloth tape over it to hold the cord in the groove and sit one side of tub on it same as heat mat.
May have to experiment with number of lines of cord and spacing between then to get ideal temperature.
anyway there are 100's of memeber who can explain it better then i as i just woke up lol.

I also use this method as well on one of my enclosures for extra heating if needed.

 

[JAS101]

Because they like law suits LOL

seriously if thats what is printed on the instructions and it causes a fire then the manufacturer will be liable. Pretty dumb if you ask me.

yup i agree it opens them up to being liable .

 

[naledge]

Why would anyone recommend putting polystyrene in contact with a heat source? That's just plain stupid. Of course it was going to melt. The advice given on here leaves a lot to be desired ... sheesh

If you want to put something between a heat mat and the cage then go for a ceramic tile. They dont melt and have good thermal properties allowing the heat to be evenly distributed which will remove any hot spots.

That's exactly what I was thinking, but two people recommended it so I guess I just had faith haha.

Well we've got a ceramic tile here, so I'll monitor the heat cord and if that's not doing it's job properly I'll try the mat with the tile. Thanks.

where did u have the thermostat probe? between the polystyrene and the heat mat [ like recomeneded?]

Only had a IMIT thermostat, I guess that was part of the problem.

Hmm thought someone would of answered this by now to make a heat board you just cut sheet of melamine or whatever and get a router and route grooves wide enough and deep enough for you to lay the heat cord ino these groves.
Is how most people heat large racks the heat cord is routed into the shelf.
Im sure you could find a picture somewhere around this site or someone would have one.
There easy to make i just make 3 or so long grooves along one edge of the board and lay about 3 or so strips of cord in that side about 5cm apart then put a bit of cloth tape over it to hold the cord in the groove and sit one side of tub on it same as heat mat.
May have to experiment with number of lines of cord and spacing between then to get ideal temperature.
anyway there are 100's of memeber who can explain it better then i as i just woke up lol.

Awesome, thank you.

 

[Bez84]

Id sit the tile over the heat cord, if you manage to route some into a board as it will heat more evenly.

 

[Cheyne_Jones]

How did you hook up an IMIT stat to regulate temp on a mat?
I just cant picture how it would work, they are only useful for air temp when using globes.
I can guarantee that was your problem, you need a thermostat with a probe that you can place on the mat to set and regulate the temp of the mat.

 

[naledge]

Id sit the tile over the heat cord, if you manage to route some into a board as it will heat more evenly.

Okay thanks, I'll do that.

How did you hook up an IMIT stat to regulate temp on a mat?
I just cant picture how it would work, they are only useful for air temp when using globes.
I can guarantee that was your problem, you need a thermostat with a probe that you can place on the mat to set and regulate the temp of the mat.

Aweh seriously? Damn I wish I'd known that before. I'm going to have to look around for a probe thermostat, the only one for sale in the city is $360. I guess that's where the internet helps haha.

Thanks.

 

[Cheyne_Jones]

Jump on one of the sponsors sites, you can pick them up for between $70 odd and $200 depending on features. But that is definitely what you need mate, what you are using now is as good as useless for your application and thats why you are having problems.

 

[naledge]

Jump on one of the sponsors sites, you can pick them up for between $70 odd and $200 depending on features. But that is definitely what you need mate, what you are using now is as good as useless for your application and thats why you are having problems.

Okay cool, thanks.

 

[Aardvark]

Herp shop has mat thermos $70.00 last time i looked

 

[naledge]

Herp shop has mat thermos $70.00 last time i looked

Oh nice, just saw them.
I'll get one as soon as the freight money from a sale goes into the bank haha.

If the temperature in the hot end is meant to be between 32-36 what should the thermostat be set at? I assume it'd be hotter where the probe is at the mat than in the air above it.

 

[Aardvark]

Use a thermometer in your enclosure then set the thermo accordingly to achieve the temp you want

 

[adz83]

the first heatmat i used i DIDNT use polystyrine under it and it ended up cracking the bottom of my glass terrarium and burning the wooden stand it was on.....I took the heatmat back to the shop i bought it from to complain and was told there was nothing they could do about it because i DIDNT hav polystyrine in place..they told me it was clearly stated on the instructions to use polystyrine
confused the hell out of me as i was just gettting started n all

 

[cosmicwolf4]

Why would anyone recommend putting polystyrene in contact with a heat source? That's just plain stupid. Of course it was going to melt. The advice given on here leaves a lot to be desired ... sheesh

If you want to put something between a heat mat and the cage then go for a ceramic tile. They dont melt and have good thermal properties allowing the heat to be evenly distributed which will remove any hot spots.

I use ceramic tiles in all my vivs and find them to be excellent. They don't melt or burn and the snakes are more comfortable. I use varying sizes according to the snakes. My woma has the biggest tile with the others going down in size according to the size of the mat in the tank.

 

[cosmicwolf4]

Oh nice, just saw them.
I'll get one as soon as the freight money from a sale goes into the bank haha.

If the temperature in the hot end is meant to be between 32-36 what should the thermostat be set at? I assume it'd be hotter where the probe is at the mat than in the air above it.

How far from Pooraka are you hun? Aggies Aquariums there have the thermo mats at a really reasonable price. I got a couple from them.

 

[jessb]

Was the heat mat a sticky one and you had it against the base of the enclosure with the polystyrene under the bottom of the mat? Because we did something similar and the heat mat actually blew a fuse. Luckily it was under a glass enclosure base because if it was under a plastic one I reckon it could have melted it before the fuse finally blew.

When I looked into it, it turns out you're not supposed to have anything in contact with the underside of the heat mat which was what caused the problem. Sounds like that may have been your problem too?

 

[wokka]

After a lot of reading it seemed the best heat source for a click-clack was a heat mat. After asking advice on here I was told to put a bit of polystyrene under it.

After one day of the heat mat (which was running through a thermostat) being on, we touched the bottom of the click-clack and nearly burnt ourselves. It got way too hot. The polystyrene had melted.

We now have a heat cord there.

Heat mats definitely seem far too risky for me, I'll stick with globes and cords.

It sounds like you have a faulty or incorrectly installed thermostat . The thermostat should turn off the heat scource before it gets "way too hot".

 

[Bez84]

I dont think ive ever owned a heat mat that could ever get hot enough to burn there all under 30 w and just feel warm to the touch, sounds like people are getting to high a wattage for the purpose they need.

 

[SNAKEBOY33]

I've had the same heat mat on the bottom of my python's wardrobe size enclosure for 12 trouble free years. Not as a primary heat source though just a little extra insurance against blown globes ect. Over the years it has had rocks, reptile sand, even spilled water bowls on it. It is only an 18 watt i think,enough for a little extra warmth and night time digesting ect.

 

[naledge]

How far from Pooraka are you hun? Aggies Aquariums there have the thermo mats at a really reasonable price. I got a couple from them.

About six hours haha, I'll probably end up getting one from herpshop. We're too far away from any reptile specialty stores here.

Was the heat mat a sticky one and you had it against the base of the enclosure with the polystyrene under the bottom of the mat? Because we did something similar and the heat mat actually blew a fuse. Luckily it was under a glass enclosure base because if it was under a plastic one I reckon it could have melted it before the fuse finally blew.

When I looked into it, it turns out you're not supposed to have anything in contact with the underside of the heat mat which was what caused the problem. Sounds like that may have been your problem too?

Nah, it was one of the green ones (like URS heat mats) it had some board between it and the enclosure and the polystyrene under it. The mat's not sticky either so it has to have something under it, it wont stick to the bottom of the enclosure.

It sounds like you have a faulty or incorrectly installed thermostat . The thermostat should turn off the heat scource before it gets "way too hot".

It was turning off, you could here it click on and off slightly when it got to the right temps, I think it just must have been because you're not supposed to use an IMIT thermostat with a heat mat. I know that now so I'll be getting a new one soon.

I dont think ive ever owned a heat mat that could ever get hot enough to burn there all under 30 w and just feel warm to the touch, sounds like people are getting to high a wattage for the purpose they need.

Mine was only 10w and it would have burnt me if I had touched it directly, touching the board above it was hot enough.

 

[adz83]

all the heatmats im using at the moment are 7watts.....they r hot to touch but def dont burn me wen i touch them